Integrated Circuits (ICs) and Electronic Circuit Boards (ECBs) are prevalent in today's electronics as they are becoming more functional and easier and cheaper to manufacture. Portable devices employing ICs and ECBs are capable of performing many functions based solely on power supplied by a battery. However, conventional devices are often limited by the number and capacity of these functions by the amount of battery power available. As such, electronic components' power consumption is a key factor considered when designing electronic devices.
Typically, electronic circuits in these devices are designed with a “worst-case scenario” in mind. That is, the amount of power (i.e., current and/or voltage) supplied to each component in the device is set to a level that assures correct operation. If is often the case, however, that the worst-case scenario set at a safe minimum power level may be wasteful and inappropriate for some situations and components. Thus, power is wasted because the power supply is set to a specific worst-case level in order to ensure proper operation of all components in the device when there may be additional “head-room” for lowering the supplied power levels on a component by component basis.
Furthermore, the performance of components will change with respect to other variables, such as component temperature, heat transfer rates, and the amount of available power remaining in the power supply (typically a power-limited battery). Such devices typically use a temporary power cell, such as, a battery (e.g. alkaline) or rechargeable battery (e.g. Lithium, Ni-MH, etc.). The importance of the rate at which power is consumed by a device, such as a mobile telephone, a digital camera, or digital video camera, is a balancing act between providing functionality and preserving battery life.
In most conventional battery-operated devices, some type of power efficiency system is employed, such as, programmatic features that places the device into “sleep mode” when it isn't utilized for a given period of time. Various other power conservation schemes have also been implemented but are typically associated with switching between modes of operation, e.g., telephone mode to a camera mode. All of the various conventional power conservation schemes, however, remain associated with a worst-case scenario minimum performance level.
Using worst-case scenario design parameters, every conventional system is designed to deliver a specified amount of power to system components that guarantees performance in worst case conditions. Due to the manufacturing variance of electronics, temperature effects, and battery capacity, this type of power management results in the delivery of power to the system components that is more than needed for optimal performance. Furthermore, this type of power management cannot react to a real-time change in operating variables, such as temperature and battery life remaining.